When played, the first thought that strikes any metal-head is surely the nostalgia that’s reminiscent from Lamb Of God‘s Ruin record, whether it be the familiar groove metal rhythm, the furiously struck breakdowns, or even just the gory death metal vocals generally.

As far as the riffs go, to begin with they’re pretty much your standard introductory sounds to any death metal release. I wouldn’t call it unoriginal but perhaps it is missing something to set it apart from the other upcoming bands out there. That said however, it is a pretty hardcore track, in the sense that I could see it impressing the kids who’d catch a live performance and could even create a couple of mosh pits if there were enough people to participate. The edge of brutality is certainly there, but harshly it does conform all to readily to the conventional death metal that is already available.

The vocals; although aren’t as completely unrecognisable as Varg Vikernes might have produced – could use some cleaning, but taking into account the rough recording the vocals are enacted darkly and aggressively, in tune to the gritty riffs that at times breakdown harmonically, nicely, although they can be a bit repetitive. The intensity doesn’t push almost as far as it could, it begins with a upbeat ‘head-banger’ pace but doesn’t far exceed the boundaries and throughout maintains (just) being ‘mosher material’. The breaks are satisfying, nothing too punishing for the ear drums to endure, and the solo around half-way through is a fresh breath of old style thrash that can never be heard enough of!

There are attempts at technicality but these efforts could be improved on. As I’ve said, this track has nothing that hasn’t already been heard before, but that said it isn’t an awful attempt at all. With perhaps more time spent finding something a bit more unique and a few more diverse riffs, I don’t think that I could really find much fault in it.